New iPad App Lets You Relive John Glenn's 'Friendship 7' Flight 50 Years Later

Below:

Next story in Space

Want to experience what it was like to be inside NASA's mission
control center 50 years ago, monitoring astronaut John Glenn as
he became the first American to orbit the Earth? There's an app
for that.

Spacecraft Films, which for more than a decade has been restoring
mission footage for DVD and Blu-ray distribution, launched their
first Apple
iPad app on Monday (Feb. 13), a week before the 50th
anniversary of John Glenn's historic mission.

"Fifty years ago John
Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth," Mark
Gray, Spacecraft Films' producer, wrote in a description of the
app for the Apple store. "Relive his three-orbit mission with
exclusive access to over 4 hours of rare video, plus the complete
audio from the onboard recorder and flight director's loop
recorded in mission control."

The app, which requires Apple iOS 5.0 or later and a Wifi
connection for watching the streaming videos, is available for
download for $6.99.

Pre-launch training

The "Friendship 7" app begins with a pilot's view of the Mercury
capsule's cockpit. Tapping in the lower right corner, the static
photo becomes an interactive tour. By touching each panel, users
can bring up the details about what every dial and switch
controlled.

Once familiar with Friendship 7, users can tap through and watch
six "Pre-Launch" videos, including the 1959 press conference
announcing John Glenn and the other original Mercury astronauts.
Another video channel, titled "Altitude Chamber," shows footage
of Glenn with his backup, Scott Carpenter, during a checkout of
the spacecraft. [ Photos:
John Glenn's Space Legacy ]

Other videos offer a look at the Atlas D missile that became
Glenn's rocket, and the Friendship 7 capsule itself, including
footage of artist Cece
Bibby painting the spacecraft's logo on capsule's side.

The "Simulated Flight" channel offers a 10-minute look at Glenn
during a mission simulation conducted on the launch pad. The
footage from Jan. 17, 1962 is paired with the audio from a
pre-flight interview with Glenn.

Lastly, a silent track offers a look at the activities leading up
to a called-off launch attempt on Jan. 27, 1962. The
Friendship 7 launch was postponed and "scrubbed" a total of
11 times before it successfully lifted off on Feb. 20.

Go for orbit

After the pre-launch activities, the app next moves into mission
control. Choosing either "Onboard Recorder" or "Flight Director
Loop" channels changes the view from inside Friendship 7 to the
flight director's console in the control room at Cape Canaveral,
Fla.

Just like the real Mercury
mission control, the field of view is filled by a large world
map with circles indicating ground stations and a red Mercury
capsule tracking where Glenn and Friendship 7 were in flight.
Here, content channels are selected by pressing buttons on the
console.

The "Onboard Recorder" plays back air-to-ground audio as was
recorded inside the Friendship 7 capsule.

"Glenn's mission lasted about five hours," Gray wrote on
Spacecraft Films' website. "The 'Friendship 7' app contains the
complete onboard recording during the mission, presented to
enable you to access it at any point, and monitor the progress of
the spacecraft as they did from the Mercury Mission Control
Center."

Similarly, "Flight Loop" taps into flight director Christopher
Kraft's audio, letting users listen in on the calls between the
various mission control consoles throughout the flight.

Users can also access videos of Glenn eating breakfast, getting
into his spacesuit, moving to the launch pad, and entering the
spacecraft on launch day, as well six different views of the
liftoff of Friendship 7. Another film gives a sense of what it
was like on the ground, with footage taken inside the Mercury
mission control during the flight. [ America's
First Spaceship: Project Mercury (Infographic) ]

The "Friendship 7" app also offers complete footage from the
pilot observation camera, showing Glenn seated on board the
spacecraft, with audio from the air-to-ground transmissions.

"[The footage is] from a recent digital transfer of the film,
much better than the quality has been in the past," Gray wrote.

In addition, users can flip through the photographs taken by
Glenn of the Earth below. Where possible, Spacecraft Films has
captioned each 35mm shot as to what location it shows and during
which of Glenn's three orbits it was taken.

As the mission comes to a close, the app offers footage of the
recovery of Friendship 7 and the ticker tape parade in New York
City that celebrated Glenn's success.

With the nearly five hour flight at its end, users can then tap
back to the first screen to view footage taken in 2009 showing
the Complex 14 launch pad as it appears today at the Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.